Curiosity didn’t kill the cat

The importance of curiosity.

Photo by Dmitriy Karfagenskiy — unsplash.com

The saying curiosity killed the cat is something that the majority of people know, and have known from a young age. From this we can be unknowingly conditioned to fear the term of curiosity, were taught that curiosity can lead to dangerous situations. However this is not the case, in fact curiosity is very important for self improvement and new discoveries, especially if your someone like me who has a passion for innovation and bringing about new ideas into the world specifically the technology industry. Curiosity can be considered a crucial part of human evolution.

Finishing university after studying network technologies, I became rather interested in computer programming. Leading me to look for a place in the industry as a software developer, a direct result of me being curious to learn new skills and see where my career could take me. Now I’m signed up as a consultant in that sector with a company known as Sparta Global. On my first week my trainer gave us a talk on the importance of curiosity, a bizarre concept being seemingly nothing to do with technology and not something generally taught by universities. I was intrigued and curious to find out more.

After delving deeper I have now begun to realise that almost everything that is and everything that has ever been created or discovered came about due to curious human beings.

“For all the cyber dazzle, though, there is a point where technological prowess gives way to something that defies programming, says Robert Wolcott, KIN co-founder and executive director. The desire, the need to create, he notes in the conference’s concluding session, might be humanity’s defining trait.”

Segment taken from Being Human in the Age of AI, Robotics & Big Data by J.A.Ginsburg

Reading an article the other day by reason of curiosity, presented me with the above segment. A light bulb went off in my head. It was so obvious.

“The desire, the need to create”

I interpret this differently as not a need more possibly the curiosity to see what we as humans are capable of creating. Looking back to our ancestors, at the unbelievable inventions they have built, developed the world we live in today. Lets take light bulbs for instance. A man named Michael Faraday in 1881 designed something called the electric dynamo, which is an electric generator, capable of producing a tiny flow of electricity through a wire. The generator had no real practical purpose yet, so why did he invent it. Curiosity! Could it be he was just simply curious, of knowing wether he could design a machine capable of generating a flow of electricity. Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan later invented the filament light bulb in 1878. Again potentially due to the fact they were curious to see what could be achieved with Michael Faradays earlier invention. Curious to discover what they could accomplish. Think about any creation or discovery the majority of which can be related to curiosity. Architects, curious how high can we build, thus a skyscraper. America, curious can we land man on the moon, therefor they built space shuttles. In relation to technology, humans were curious to know how immersed they can get within a virtual world, as a result designed virtual reality goggles. I believe the evolution of human beings has revolved around this concept of curiosity, furthermore it continues to advance our species. Are we able to live on mars? How far into space can we go? Is there a way to reach the deepest darkest parts of our oceans? What else can we accomplish?

Curiosity can develop us as a species and progress us as individuals. If you want to improve yourself you need to be curious. If your the kind of person, like I was, that doesn’t know what they want to do in life, and forever looking for something their good at or even passionate about, then be curious. Do something you wouldn’t normally do, for the pure sake of curiosity. How are you ever meant to make any self discoveries or find anything you love, if your not curious enough to just try things out. How are you ever meant to know what you are truly capable of accomplishing if your not curious to identify your potential. I would never have unearthed my passion for computer programming or be where I am now if not for the fact I was sufficiently curious to go University to explore my future opportunities. Well this maybe a result of my mum giving me a boot up the butt and telling me to do something with my life, however I was still curious enough to try. I didn’t recognise my potential to programme computers until I was curious to see if I was actually able to. I think you get my point. Even if you are someone that has been developing their career for many years in any given industry, as a consequence been thinking about innovating new ideas then be curious. How are you supposed to create something new if you do not start being curious to try some of your ideas out. Maybe your someone that is always coming up with amazing ideas in your head, stop thinking about those ideas just be curious, start trying various ideas to see what is possible. How will you ever know if your not curious enough to at least try?

Hopefully by now you realise just how important curiosity really is, moreover that I have inspired you to begin to be curious. Try new things, learn a new skill or read about something you’ve always wanted to know by cause of curiosity. I’m curious to know who is actually going to read this.